L.B. Foster Company

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the L.B. Foster's fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 1-1 again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Lisa Durante, Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LB Foster's fourth quarter of 2024 earnings call. My name is Lisa Durante, the company's Investor Relations Manager. Our President and CEO, John Castle, and our Chief Financial Officer, Bill Tommen, will be presenting our fourth quarter operating results market outlook, and business developments this morning. We'll start the call with John providing his perspective on the company's fourth quarter and full year 2024 performance. Bill will then review the company's fourth quarter financial results. John will discuss perspectives on market developments and company outlook in his closing comments. We will then open up the session for questions. Today's slide presentation, along with our earnings release and financial disclosures, were posted on our website this morning and can be accessed on our investor relations page at lbboster.com. Our comments this morning will follow the slides in the earnings presentation. Some statements we are making are forward-looking and represent our current view of our markets and business today. These forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these statements in light of new information, except as required by securities laws. For more detailed risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and presentation. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial metrics and encourage you to carefully read our disclosures and reconciliation tables provided within today's earnings release and presentation as you consider these metrics. So with that, let me turn the call over to John.

Thanks, Lisa, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter earnings call. I'll begin my remarks on slide five, covering the highlights of the quarter. First of all, let me say we're very pleased with how we finished 2024 with solid profitability and strong cash generation in the second half of 2024. These results are a clear indication our strategic playbook and execution over the last three years are translating to improving economic profit generation. In the fourth quarter, gross margins of 22.3% were up 100 basis points over last year on 5% lower sales, highlighting the improved profitability of the portfolio. Adjusted EBITDA of $7.2 million was up $1.1 million, or 18.7%, with lower SG&A expenses delivering the improvement versus last year. In line with our normal working capital cycle, we also delivered a strong quarter of cash generation, with operating cash totaling $24.3 million, noting that $49 million was generated in the second half of 2024. Cash from Q4 was deployed primarily to reduce our net debt in the quarter by $20.9 million to $44.5 million at quarter end. As a result of the lower debt levels and improving profitability, our gross leverage ratio came in an impressive 1.2 times. This is an improvement from 1.9 times at the start of the quarter and 1.7 times from last year. Highlights from the full year results are on slide six. Reported sales of $530.8 million were down 2.4 percent as a result of divestiture activity, while organic sales were up modestly. In line with our strategy, gross margins expanded 160 basis points to 22.2 percent despite the lower sales. The approved gross margins increased adjusted EBITDA $1.8 million to $33.6 million for the full year. Solid operating cash flow in the quarter allowed us to reduce debt, improve leverage, and make progress on our stock buyback program with 2.7% of outstanding shares repurchased in 2024. We also finalized the Union Pacific settlement funding in 2024, improving cash generation by $8 million per year going forward. All in all, I'm very pleased with our team's accomplishments and the progress we have made executing our strategy in 2024. Our discipline, execution, and our strategic playbook has positioned us well, and we're optimistic about the prospects for continuing growth in 2025 and beyond. Bill will now cover the financial details for the quarter and year, as well as an update on our capital allocation priorities, which includes a new $40 million stock buyback program. I'll come back at the end with some closing remarks on our markets and outlook for 2025. Over to you, Bill.

Thanks, John. Morning, everyone. I'll begin my comments covering the fourth quarter highlights on slide eight. As always, the schedules in the appendix provide more information on our financial results, including the non-GAAP reconciliations. Net sales of $128.2 million declined 5% in the fourth quarter, Due to an organic sales decline of 3.8% driven by the infrastructure segment, rail organic sales were up 14.2%. Despite the lower sales, gross margins expanded 100 basis points to 22.3% due to improved profitability in the rail segment. SG&A costs in Q4 were $24.4 million down $2.8 million from last year due to lower personnel costs and lower bad debt expense in the UK, resulting from a $1 million charge taken last year. Restructuring costs of $0.5 million and a $1.7 million charge related to the settlement of our U.S. defined benefit pension plan were both excluded from Q4 adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7.2 million, up 18.7% versus last year, due primarily to the lower SG&A expenses. Operating cash was strong at $24.3 million, up $2.6 million over last year's fourth quarter. This year's results included a $0.8 million in restructuring cost funding and $1.8 million to terminate the U.S. defined benefit pension plan. I'll cover the deployment of operating cash along with some additional color on performance by segment later in the presentation. Slide 9 reflects the organic and portfolio-driven impacts on sales and adjusted EBITDA for the quarter versus last year. We continue to realize improved profitability year over year from our portfolio work as well as improvements in our legacy businesses. Despite the lower organic sales in the quarter, our legacy businesses contributed a strong increase in EBITDA due primarily to the lower operating costs. The bridge grid deck business continues to wind down, which is also contributing to improved profitability year over year. Slide 10 highlights the favorable impact on margins over a longer time period. Reflected here are quarterly sales and gross profit over the last two years. we continue to realize improved margins year over year driven by an improved sales mix. Our focus on driving organic growth within rail technologies and precast concrete is translating into higher margins and greater economic profit generation on slightly lower sales in recent quarters. We expect this trend to continue in line with our strategic playbook with a focus on driving organic sales growth in 2025. On the next couple of slides, I'll cover the key drivers of segment results for the quarter. Starting with rail on slide 11, fourth quarter revenues totaling $79.2 million were up 14.2% over last year. The entire increase was organic and driven by higher volumes in rail products, friction management, and total track monitoring product lines. In addition to the higher sales, rail margins of 22.2% were up 300 basis points versus last year. The improved margins were driven by the strong segment volumes, coupled with improvements in our higher margin growth platforms, as well as the ongoing recovery of our business in the UK. Fourth quarter rail orders decreased by 8.5%, driven by softer orders in rail products. Rail backlog was down 26% year-over-year, in large part due to our strategy. The decline was realized entirely in rail products and our UK business. We continue to limit investment in the UK despite some improvement year-over-year. Partially offsetting the decline was a 53.4% increase in backlog for global friction management. Turning to infrastructure solutions on slide 12, segment revenue decreased $16.6 million or 25.2% due to soft market conditions in the steel products business, most notably our pipeline coating product line. Prospects for improvement for this product line will be covered in John's market outlook section later on. Precast concrete revenues were down 3.4% versus last year with Q4 last year being an exceptionally strong for our CXT buildings product line. Gross margins were down 90 basis points to 22.6% due to lower sales volumes and unfavorable business mix within steel products for the quarter. Precast concrete margins of 25.7% were up 20 basis points versus last year. Infrastructure orders were 52.2 million up $6.8 million over last year, with the increase realized entirely within the protective coatings product line, highlighting the improving outlook. Backlog totaling $123.5 million was down $5.9 million, primarily due to a $6.8 million decline in the bridge product lines. Precast concrete backlog increased $3.6 million versus last year. I'll briefly cover the highlights for the full year on slide 13. Organic sales were essentially flat for the year, with the 2.4% reported sales decline due to divestitures. Real organic sales growth was a solid 5.4%, but offset primarily by lower organic sales in steel products within infrastructure. Gross profit improved $6 million, while gross profit margins of 22.2% improved 160 basis points. As a reminder, the 2023 gross profit was adversely impacted by $4.2 million from the bridge grid deck exit, while 2024 gross profit includes a $0.8 million gain on a property sale completed in the second quarter. The balance of the margin improvement is due to business portfolio changes in line with our strategy. coupled with overall favorable business mix and pricing initiatives. SG&A expenses decreased $1.2 million from the prior year. The decrease is due to lower employment and bad debt expenses, partially offset by higher restructuring, legal, and professional service costs. 2024 adjusted EBITDA was $33.6 million, Up $1.8 million compared to last year, driven by both improved margins and lower SG&A expenses. I'll now cover our liquidity and leverage on slide 14. Net debt declined $20.9 million during the quarter to $44.5 million, driven by the operating cash flow of $24.3 million in the fourth quarter. We've consistently managed our leverage and debt levels in line with our business profitability and other capital needs. We believe this is a strength of the business given our Capital Light business model. As John mentioned in his opening remarks, the Union Pacific Settlement was fully funded in December. The $50 million obligation paid over six years with $8 million paid in 2024 is now behind us. Its resolution provides a significant boost to our financial flexibility going forward. It's worth noting that the 2024 free cash flow adjusted for the UP payments and other non-recurring items was approximately $25 million, representing an 8% yield at today's stock price. Our strong cash generation also allowed us to step up the pace of our stock repurchase program in 2024. I'll cover the new stock repurchase authorization along with other capital allocation priorities on slide 15. Our previous $15 million authorization expired at the close of last week. Since the program's inception, we repurchased 435,000 shares, or approximately 3.8% of common stock outstanding, utilizing total proceeds of $9.1 million through December of 2024. I should note that we also repurchased approximately 111,000 shares in 2025, bringing total repurchases under the expired authorization up to 545,000 shares, or approximately 4.8% of shares outstanding. On March 3rd, 2025, the board authorized a new three-year $40 million share repurchase program that will expire at the end of February of 2028. Share repurchases are an important capital allocation priority for us, especially with the improving prospects for cash generation and current attractive valuation. We plan on continuing to invest CapEx in our facilities at a rate of approximately 2% of sales with a focus on organic growth initiatives within our growth platforms. We also continue to evaluate tuck-in acquisitions to add breadth to our overall growth platforms. And finally, we will remain prudent with our leverage and net debt levels with the goal of maintaining leverage between approximately one times and two times over the longer term. We finished 2024 with gross leverage at 1.2 times which was a low point in recent years. Our working capital needs are greatest in the first half of the year, and our debt levels and leverage will be elevated during this period. However, we've consistently demonstrated that we can manage through these normal seasonal cycles and maintain our financial flexibility while funding other capital allocation priorities. My closing comments will refer to slides 16 and 17 covering orders, revenues, and backlogs by business. The book-to-bill ratio at the end of Q4 was 0.95 to 1, up slightly from last quarter. Rail order rates have begun to recover with the trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio at 0.94 to 1, including a 3.2% increase in friction management orders in Q4. Higher orders across the steel products and precast concrete businesses drove the improved infrastructure ratio at 0.97 to 1. Steel product orders were up 65.8% with strong intake levels in protective coatings. Precast concrete orders were also up 1.6% in the fourth quarter. And lastly, the consolidated backlog reflected on slide 17 was down $28 million, or approximately 13% from the record high levels seen last year, with both segments experiencing declines. It should be highlighted that the lower backlog and related book-to-bill ratio below 1 are in part due to our strategic playbook. The real segment backlog is down $22 million. Over half of the decline is in our UK business as we continue to scale back initiatives in the UK market in line with our strategy. The balance of the decline is in our rail products business, in part due to the lower market steel prices. Backlog for the friction management product line was up $3.8 million, or 53.4%. Infrastructure backlog is down $5.9 million, or 4.6%, With the entire decline due to steel products, precast concrete backlog improved $3.6 million or 4.6%. The $9.5 million decline in steel products backlog is due to lower demand levels across the business unit, as well as $2.7 million from the product line exit activities. In summary, despite the lower backlog levels, we remain optimistic in the outlook for profitable growth with our focus on driving demand generation in our growth platforms, coupled with an expected recovery in our protective coatings business, which John will cover in his closing remarks. Thanks for the time this morning. I'll now hand it back to John.

Thanks, Bill. I'll begin my closing remarks by covering the near-term outlook for key end markets on slide 19. Bill mentioned that our overall backlog is down 13% versus last year. So let me impact that a bit more. To begin with, over half of the backlog decline is due to our continued strategic playbook actions as we focus on expanding our more profitable work programs and eliminate or scale back parts of the business that consume working capital that are not generating the economic profit that we'd like to see. In our core growth areas, backlog is up year-over-year in friction management precast concrete, 53.4% and 4.6% respectively. And while total track monitoring backlog is down versus last year, we're seeing increasing cording activity that should translate into order book improvement in this product line. These trends should translate into improved sales efficiency continuing into 2025. As a reminder, we had an exceptionally strong first quarter last year, particularly in our rail segment. which is normally softer at the start of the year due to adverse weather conditions. But the 13% lower backlog this year and the volatile macro environment, we expect to start to 2025 to be softer versus last year. However, we believe demand from our core end markets should continue to support growth over the median and long-term cycles. With the increasing focus in Braille on safety, operating efficiency, and reliability, We expect steady demand in our rail segment to continue, especially for rail technologies-oriented elements of the portfolio. With the current activities in Washington, D.C., we are monitoring the status of the government funding programs previously approved supporting investment in rail infrastructure. Our markets are also absorbing the threat of tariffs, particularly related to steel, and we are taking steps to align supply chain to build in flexibility where possible to navigate the choppy conditions that may be ahead. For infrastructure business, we see a couple of favorable trends worth highlighting. As mentioned before, precast concrete backlog is up, and we continue to ramp fulfillment capacity in Tennessee and Florida operations. Construction demand in these markets continues to be robust, and we believe the growth drivers remain largely intact. The commissioning of our Central Florida facility remains on track, and we're seeing interest continue to grow in our Virocast wall system solutions. We expect production to begin in this facility by the end of the first quarter, with initial orders already in hand. Also within infrastructure, the renewed interest in U.S. oil and gas production is translating to increasing demand and favorable outlook for our pipeline coating product lines, noting that protective coating orders were 8.6 million Q4, up from 1.4 million last year. As you recall, this product line has been depressed over the last four years, and we're that the favorable demand development will continue throughout 2025. In summary, as I mentioned earlier, while we expect the start to 2025 to be a bit softer than last year, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from infrastructure-based investment plans for years to come. On slide 20, you'll note our investment thesis remains unchanged as we move into 2025. The strategic steps we've taken to reposition our portfolio continue to manifest improved sales efficiency and economic profit generation. As a result of our strategic choices, we've been able to simplify the business portfolio and narrow our investment in growth platforms of rail technologies and precast concrete. The multiple year infrastructure investment super cycle we expect in the coming years should translate to steady to robust growth in our platforms. Our strategy execution along with our capital light business model continues to drive strong cash generation which should expand further in 2025 with the completion of Union Pacific settlement payments behind us and, of course, improved profitability outlook. And finally, we continue to allocate capital in a disciplined, conservative manner to maintain financial flexibility while also driving growth in shareholder returns. In summary, we're confident that our strategy is sound and our investment thesis anchored by these four pillars is compelling. And as a result of that, we have authorized a new three-year, $40 million company stock repurchase program. I'd like to close today's call by covering our 2025 financial guidance, following down slide 21. As you may recall, we announced our refresh strategy in December of 2021 and established aspirational goals you see here for 2025. We made significant progress through 2024, and our guidance for 2025 is within striking distance of the goals we established over three years ago. Importantly, when these goals were established in 2021, it contemplated significantly more risky portfolio changes than we completed. What we realized along the way is our portfolios exist today, after nine transactions completed over the last three years, can deliver the goals we established without the higher risk, namely capital-intensive acquisitions. The midpoints of our sales and EBITDA guidance for 2025 represent a reasonable 5.5% organic sales growth, with a more robust 34% adjusted EBITDA growth driven by sales mix and leveraged SG&A. Of course, M&A is an important capital allocation priority for us, and we continue to evaluate the portfolio and opportunities for tuck-in acquisitions aligned with our growth platforms. But let me remind you that our current focus is driving organic growth which should continue to accelerate our profitability expansion in 2025 and beyond. And lastly, while the current environment is a bit choppy, we believe these conditions will stabilize and the much-needed infrastructure investment will drive demand and growth in our markets. In closing, I'd like to highlight that 2024 represented the best safety year the company has ever seen. We are devoted to nurturing our culture of care by taking proactive measures to emphasize the safety and well-being of our employees and community. Our employees understand the responsibility of making choices that will safely and positively impact themselves and others by making safety a priority. In this environment together, we achieve more and drive positive change. So with that important closing note and statement on safety, I'm very pleased with our team's accomplishments over the last three years and look forward to continuing the journey in 2025. Thank you for your time and continuing interest in Elby Foster Company. I'll turn it back to the operator for the Q&A.

Certainly. And as a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. Our first question comes from the line of Julio Romero from Sidoti and Company. Your question, please.

Great. Thanks. Hey, good morning, John and Bill. Thanks for taking questions. Hello, Julio. Good to see you.

How are you doing, Julio? Thanks for joining us.

Absolutely. Good to be here. My first question is on the 2025 guidance ranges for sales and EBITDA that implies sales growth of about 5.5% at the sales midpoint and 34% at the EBITDA midpoint. If you could just speak to the puts and takes that could get you to the high and low end of your ranges.

Yeah. Well, obviously what's going on in the markets today is obviously a little choppy, so we've got to kind of find our way through that. But where we feel very, very strong is where We've really been pivoting the company in the last couple years with technology innovation, specifically on our rail side. So our condition monitoring business that we have, which is with the wild applications that we have and the rockfall applications, and soon to hopefully be announced other products, it really gives the opportunity to uplift not just our sales activities, but it's also the margins that come with that. So that's where we're really feeling good about as the year progresses, and all the work that we did last year with managing our SG&A cost. As you recall, we did a 7% reduction, and really, most of it was the back office support. So we're going to see some nice leverage with sales and profitability for the balance of the year. So we're going to land probably somewhere in between there, but what we feel the best about is the revenue that we're seeing in the coming months is going to continue to maintain those nice profitability margins. You know, we're over 22% oil. Just a few years ago, we were struggling trying to get to 20%. So we've done a lot of hard work, and that's a lot of it's related to technology innovation that we're bringing to the marketplace today.

Excellent. Great context there. And then, you know, you mentioned the wheel impact load detection systems. Can you maybe just talk about what can drive increased market adoption of Some of those offerings within the rail segment, they're a little techier. You know, strike monitoring, et cetera. And does the recent transportation incidents that are kind of in the headlines call attention to some of your customers for the need to prioritize safety?

Yeah. So in my remarks here, I've talked about the rail space as, you know, operating safer and more reliable. And that's what this stuff does. It gives them the opportunity to really understand their relationship with what's happening with the rail car's and what's going on with the track conditions themselves. So if there is an issue, it gives them that early warning indication of being able to do something. So they can really focus on their velocity and their distance between the trains themselves and dwell time. So much of the devices that are in the marketplace today really are something that signals a defect or something has already occurred. Our product tells one early detection warning. The railroads have really picked up on this. We have the largest install base here in North America of this product line, and we're really excited about the opportunities that we see of continuing to increase that install base with the introduction of our new Mark IV product that we brought to the marketplace last year. So things are looking very well there because our customers really understand the value we bring to them today of helping them run more effectively and efficiently. So going back to my earlier comments, when you see these uplift in margins, this is a good example of product lines that we're bringing in that will give us the opportunity to really change our portfolio as we move forward. And more profitability comes with that.

Very helpful. One more for me, and then I'll hop in the queue. Just on the free cash flow, now that the union settlement is in the rearview, Just what's the biggest swing factor to your cash flow going forward?

Yeah, so we got 20 to 30, and we ended up at 22 this year, right? And I think at one time, Bill and I were talking about zero to five, you know, and we really, really had great working capital performance and just managing cash in the second half, specifically in the fourth quarter. This company does an excellent job. The operating people have done a really, really good job for many, many years of really getting after cash, cash generation. And I know that's one of the things that excites the investor buy, but there is some choppiness that comes with it too. As we see an uplift, and we're going to have that in Q2 and Q3, related to some working capital buys that we need to do, right? So we've got quite a bit of work coming, and what I didn't mention before is all the infrastructure work that we have. So if you just look at what's going on in precast today and our continued expansion, our legacy work, as well as what's going on in Tennessee, And now with our new operation in Florida, we're going to have to fund those organic programs with working capital. So we're going to have to manage that cash. And I think the cycle will look similar to what we saw last year with significant improvement towards the end of the year as we manage the close of the year. But with the Union Pacific behind us, that was six years in the making of staying close to them, managing the settlement payments. But I'll tell you what, we came out of that a much better company, LB Foster. And I think Union Pacific has also recognized the value we brought to them. And the business today is as better as it's ever been. So, you know, we're looking for not just what we've done in the past with them, but how do we continue to grow that business in really two different companies than where we were even six years ago. So, you know, we're mindful of what's going on in cash flow. We like the fact that we hit it 1.2 times at the end of the year for 1.7 times where we started year over year, and 1.9 at the start of the quarter. So that's something that is really a strong lever for us in the company of keeping that in front of us and continue to manage and have the cash be something that is something that's very, very important to us, as well as continuing with the stock buyback, right? So that's the thing that we always have to manage our way through there. We're very excited about this three-year, $40 million program of continuing to invest in the company and purchase back these shares. That's how strong we feel about where we're at today and, more importantly, where we're heading. And the cash will be reflective of that as well.

Excellent. Thanks very much. I'll pass it on.

Thank you, Julio. Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Chris Sakai from Singular Research. Your question, please.

Yes, hi. Good morning, John and Bill. Hi, Chris. So can you help me understand, I mean, with these new steel tariffs coming on, how will this affect your backlog going forward? How should we look at that?

Well, the backlog's intact. We feel good about that, right? And the nice thing is we've seen these tariffs before, Chris. I really appreciate the question. Back in 17 with the 232 tariffs. So we've been down this road before, and our relationships with our domestic steel mills is excellent. So the good news for L.B. Foster and the investors at L.B. Foster is we pretty much have But what we need to get, we have those quantities and tons pretty much allocated and going to be sitting there for us this year. The question is, where does the price flow through? What does the demand look like on these mills related to other product lines? But as far as backlog, we're going to execute that backlog. A lot of times in the past, these tariffs related to steel itself was a good thing for LV Foster Company, and I'm looking for the same thing to happen the second half of this year as well.

Okay, great. And then for protective codex, how high do you think that number could go?

I don't know. All I know is what I shared with you, you know, for the $1.8 million to all those additional over $8 million that we've seen just in the fourth quarter, year-over-year basis. You know, we're in constant contact with the mill itself, namely SIPCO, who we're in line coder for. and they're quoting a lot of work and they're booking a lot of work in their two steel mills right now so we are wrapping up our operation we have hired about 55 people in the last 60 days so we are looking to be running almost at full capacity here starting in in april how that translates to what the revenue is going to look like between now and then years yet to be seen but we're feeling very very good about getting out of that trough that we've been in the last four years in that business and really driving some nice profitability out of that facility as well as what we have in our Willis specialty coating business as well. So both are looking very good here.

Okay, thanks. And then for the $40 million share buyback, what made you decide on $40 million?

Yeah, well, we had to pick a number to start with, right? And we came off with $15 million. So Bill and I kind of talked back and forth. We worked with our board of directors. We looked at the Union Pacific, that cash coming back, and how can we take a good portion of that cash that we're not going to be spending related to settlement fees and bring that into the repurchase program. So that just seemed a good fit, the right balance. with the monies that we see that we're going to generate in operating cash, as well as the additional cash that's coming in.

Okay, and last one for me. Will you come out with a new four-year plan?

We will come out with a three-year plan related to aspirational goals. We'll stick to three years.

Okay, sounds good.

All right, Chris.

Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Justin Bergener from Good Valley Funds. Your question, please.

Hi. Good morning.

Good morning, Justin.

Good work on the business. And I guess my questions, John, would be around the precast concrete use in national parks, state parks. I mean, we're seeing some potential disruptions there, shall we say, how are you factoring that into your guidance and outlook for 25?

Well, I guess with the earlier questions, when you start looking at the 540 to 580, that may have some impact of moving towards the lower end of the guidance related to that activity. But I'll tell you, Justin, we did $80 million alone in that business last year. which is the best year we ever had. The Great American Outdoors Act, which is running for another year or so related to the funding, we're still in very, very good shape related to the work we have, the work in our backlog, and the shipments that we're looking at making here in the next few months. So we're actually not as concerned about that as perhaps we could or maybe on other things that are happening today. That one looks still pretty good.

Gotcha. All right. And then in terms of the recovery in the second half versus the first half, like what parts of the business are you banking on? Yeah. Bouncing back.

Yeah. Good question. So, you know, our business, we didn't see as much as this last year, and it was in our remarks, Bill and I says, and our business is seasonal. And a lot of that's related to just getting budget, uh, budgets approved in as well as weather conditions. Uh, so typically, uh, where we really, really strive, uh, is in the second and third quarters. And then in greater extent, fourth quarter too, more in the first quarter. So we're seeing this to be a much more typical year, if you will. I think once these, when we get through the tariffs and all those other government actions too, they'll settle down here. I expect that to settle down in the coming months, hopefully. But I do think the second half of the year, related to the backlog, we have all the quoting activities, we have all the protective codings, work that's coming our way that we haven't seen in four years, all the work that's coming out of Florida with our new operation, all the work that's coming out of Tennessee related to CXT. It's really, really shaping up to something that we're feeling very good about because the country needs infrastructure. They need infrastructure materials. And right now, I think we're very well positioned to be able to deliver on those things, being that much of what we do is, first of all, is here in America, and second of all, Much of the materials we get come from America as well. So I think we're, you know, it's not keeping me up at night. Let's put it that way, Justin. I think we have opportunities to really pull together a good year and hit this financial guidance that we have out there. As long as we, you know, we can't control everything, but right now what we see is we're managing what we can manage, we're doing well.

Gotcha. And then lastly... On the tariff side, with respect to the tariffs against Canada and Mexico, could that create any of a chill for your rail business?

Sure. It always can. You know, we do work in Canada. We work in Mexico. We have customers in Canada and in Mexico. You know, but these tariffs and these other things have been talked about for a while, and our business people have done a good job working with the end users and markets there, and we've had quite a bit of work that's been flowing between the countries leading up to what happened last night or early this morning related to tariffs. So I think everybody's mindful of what's going on. At the end of the day, the customers, both in Mexico and Canada, want our product, need our product. We will continue to find a way to get them product. And we're going to continue to make product in line with everything we have in our backlog. And we should be able to pass pricing on as well if there is increased pricing because our contracts are allowing for us to do that. And we have quite a bit of flexibility the way I'm seeing before. Coming out of COVID, really, this organization really pivoted. We really got after our contracts and really understood what was really driving and the material costs and other things. So we have the opportunity now to go get price when costs increase, and we feel pretty good about that.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And as a reminder, if you do have a question at this time, please press star 1-1. And our next question is a follow-up from the line of Julio Romero from Sudoti. Your question, please.

Hey, thanks, guys, for taking a few follow-ups from me. Sure. On the restructuring, are all the costs related to that taken already in 2024? How much savings were realized in 2024? And how much incremental savings in 2025 do you expect relative to what you got in 2024?

We appreciate that question. We spent a lot of time really mapping that out. In fact, we took six months and really peeled back the onion of what we needed to do there. And then we also took monies and we pivoted towards our technology innovation engineering side. of the company and as well as the technical sales side. And I'll flip that over to Bill, and he can give you some details on actually how those numbers are translating, what they mean this year. But I want to just from a strategy point of view, that was a key point of really getting ourselves positioned for this profitability expansion that we have in 2025. Yeah.

Hey, Julio. So yeah, in 2024, the total charge that we took was right around $1.5 million. I think it was about a half a million dollars that we realized in Q4 as well, in terms of the split between Q3 and Q4. Funding-wise, we spent about $800,000 in 2024. There's a little bit of cash that will come out in 2025, but in terms of P&L charges, nothing more that we would expect in 2025. And then in terms of realized savings, based on the timing of when employees left the organization, we realized about $2 million worth of savings in 2024. And we expect our run rate savings from the program to be about $4.5 million. So you would expect an incremental $2.5 million in 2024, sorry, 2025 over 2024. Great.

Thanks so much for the color there. And then one more for me is just Can you maybe level set for us what percentage of each segment currently is related to growth? Maybe what percentage of the consolidated LB Foster as a whole falls under the growth bucket? And then if you could, to the best that you can, speak to some of the organic growth rates embedded in those growth buckets that each should be getting in 2025.

Appreciate the question. So I'll start and just give you a little color and strategy. I mean, we have growth coming out of both segments, first and foremost. So we feel good about that. We've got quite a bit in the infrastructure as we talk about what's going on in Florida, the expansion that's going on in Tennessee in both locations right now, as well as we've got some nice programs going in Texas on the infrastructure side, really building out our precast abilities that we have there. On the rail side, it's all about TTM and the condition monitoring that we mentioned we've been talking about, specifically products like the Mark IV, the Rockfall applications that we have. There's really a renewed interest in some of the other products we have, especially with Union Pacific settlements behind us. We're adding more rail products-type components to the marketplace today that we haven't seen in quite a while. And of course, the big thing that basically went from zero to 100 is predictive coatings right now with the inline oil and gas pipe that we're doing, 12 to 24-inch pipe, distribution pipe that we're that we're going to be coding and putting in the marketplace for the balance of this year. And we honestly see that activity continue for multiple years. Bill, you want to add a little color as far as the actual numbers, what that represents?

Yeah, I think, Julio, you know, we talk about the business as segments, but then we also break down those platforms in some details in our materials. So I would characterize our growth platforms at about $230 million in 2024. and the balance of the business, about $300 million would be our returns platforms. And I think you're probably familiar with what those groups are. When we're thinking about growth rates for 2025, the return platforms are going to be kind of low single-digit numbers, lower single-digit growth rates. What I would tease out of that is the codings business, which is part of the returns platform. We would expect that to be maybe a little healthier growth rate than low single digits just because of the emphasis on the energy investment here in the United States that's come back into play here somewhat in recent months. And then on the growth platforms, we look at high single digits, low double digits in terms of growth rates with the expectations of primarily within friction management seeing greater growth there. You mentioned the wild programs that we've got deployed in TTM. That will be a higher growth rate as well. And then very importantly, the precast concrete business with the investments we've made in our Tennessee operations, market growth opportunity there, as well as the investments we made in Florida. We expect to see sales growth to be a little healthier there as well. Hopefully that helps.

It does. Definitely appreciate the granularity. Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. And as a reminder, if you do have a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. And this does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to John Castle for any further remarks.

Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you for joining us today. I'd just like to close once again with just a shout-out to all the OB Foster team members that made... We challenged the company back in 2024 to be not just good at safety, but world-class as it relates to safety. See, how we look at it is if you take care of your people, they take care of the process, and the profits come. And when safety is good, the business is good. And we were outstanding in 2024. We went for a long period of time, months, quarters, without even one injury in the company. And for a company that's been around since 1902, that really says something, what we've been able to do, what we've been able to accomplish. And I think it really, to the investors out there, either investing in a company today or a future investor, when L.B. Foster puts our mind to something and we go out and say we're going to do something, we deliver. Last year when Bill and I, after the second quarter, we talked about the profitability. that we're going to come in the second half of the year. We talk about the cash we're going to generate in the second half of the year. And we delivered. We delivered on what we said after a tough second quarter. And we're here to say that we're going to deliver on what we have in 2025 and beyond, too. Good company, good people, strong operations. And what we're seeing through their safety program is extremely exciting. And again, it just represents who we are, more importantly, what we are and how we do things. So thank you for joining us today, and I look forward to catching up with you after the second quarter. Take care.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation at today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.